Reciprocity and Adaptation in the Contemporary Guest Practices of Kazakhs

06 September 2013

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The paper examines the forms of reciprocity that
characterize contemporary Kazakh practices of visiting and hospitality. The paper is based on fieldwork conducted
between 2011 and 2013 in Northern and Central Kazakhstan with support from a
grant from the Open Society Foundation.
Research methods involved interviews, participant observation, and
visual (photo and video) data. The contexts of hospitality there were studied
included funeral and memorial feasts, the various phases of wedding
celebrations, and Muslim festive cycles (Ait,
Kurban Bairam), as well as less formal, private hospitality practices.

Hospitality practices are played out in a complex of
partially complementary, partially competing normative or moral
frameworks. The matter of hospitality is
assigned great importance in context of Kazakh culture, with strong appeals to
its deeply traditional and essential character.
At the same time, hospitality is practiced in contexts in which changing
moral frameworks related to current circumstances also condition the values
that underpin these practices. Thus,
there is a continuous process of adaptation, the pace of which has accelerated
in the rapidly changing social circumstances of the post-Soviet period. In this paper, I analyze how practices
reflect changing values but at the same time evoke social memory, and reflect
appeals to the enduring features of Kazakh culture. The reciprocity of hospitality is articulated
in events that are played out in the present -- and a present that is
experience often as highly unstable -- but contain mythical reference to an
unchanging historical past.

Receiving guests involves a number of ritualized
procedures and roles. Key phases include
receiving of guests, serving them meals, sometime providing them with
accommodation, and seeing them off.
Meals are central, and in them one can see the combination of elements
that are conceptualized as rooted in ancient tradition, such as the dividing of
the meat according to social status, and other elements that are seen as
valuable and essential but not historically rooted, such as serving of alcohol
and tropical fruits. Similarly, the key
roles include those which are seen as rooted in Kazakh values and tradition,
such as those who read prayers and offer blessings, and others that represent
active innovation, including the tamada, or master of ceremonies, who
orchestras a program that should reflect the latest trends, including varieties
of dancing, clowns, and photo-shoots.
Funerary and memorial events reflect the greatest conservatism, but even
here one can observe change. Much of the
innovation and change in hospitality practices can be associated with the
changing economic circumstances, including rising incomes, changing capacity of
the family to mobilize and pool resources, and new patterns of consumerism. Every major event of receiving guests
involves a complex web of reciprocity, that determines social possibilities,
and defines a moral landscape of social relations of mutual commitment and
alternating indebtedness.

Zubaida
Suraganova, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University

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